Douglas Kalajian, one of the two writers behind The Armenian Kitchen, has fond memories of the once-large Armenian community that vacationed in the Catskills:
Maybe you think of the Catskill Mountains as the Borscht Belt, but I remember when the heights around Tannersville, New York, echoed with the sounds of kebab sizzling on the grill and dice skipping across a backgammon board.
He used to spend summers up there with his family at the Washington Irving Hotel, which, he says, was a popular Armenian vacation spot:
I remember eating with all those Armenians in the dining room: Big platters of dolma or kebabs passed around family style as people visited from table to table. It was impossible to get through a meal without at least one serious pinch under the chin from some old person I didn't know but who was just so excited to see me.
